Randhir Kapoor

Randhir Kapoor (born 15 February 1947 in India) is a Bollywood actor, producer and director. His nickname is Daboo.

Early life

Randhir Kapoor hails from the legendary Kapoor family. He is the eldest son of Raj Kapoor. He is a fourth generation Kapoor and comes from a distinguished Pathan[1][2] family who have been part of the industry for many years. His great-grandfather was Dewan Basheswarnath Kapoor, his grandfather was Prithviraj Kapoor, his paternal uncles are Shammi Kapoor and Shashi Kapoor. His brothers are Rishi Kapoor and Rajiv Kapoor. His wife is actress Babita and his daughters are current stars Karisma Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor.

CareerRandhir Kapoor made his acting and directorial debut with Kal Aaj Aur Kal (1971) which also starred his wife, father and grandfather. The film was produced under the R.K banner and was an average success. After his debut, he scored with two successful movies, the first with Jaya Bachchan in the film Jawani Diwani (1972) which also included the hit song Jaane Jaan. This movie was one of the biggest hits of that year and was applauded because of the music and performances. The other success, also released in the same year, was Raampur Ka Lakshman, with Shatrughan Sinha and Rekha, and directed by Manmohan Desai, with music by the legendary R.D. Burman. In 1975 he directed and starred alongside his father once again in Dharam Karam which was a failure at the box office.

He went on to appear in other multi-starrer hit films: Chacha Bhatija (1977), Kasme Vaade (1978) (he earned a Filmfare nomination as Best Supporting Actor) and Pukar (1983). However except for Jawani Diwani, which was a success to a major extent because its music by the extremely talented Rahul Dev Burman, Randhir Kapoor never gave a single successful movie in which he was the leading man. All his other hits were with other major stars, and in which Randhir Kapoor himself was the secondary lead.

After the 1984 film Khazana he quit acting and took to producing and directing. In 1991 he directed the film Henna which was at first directed by his father but he died during the production of the film and Randhir completed the film for him. He earned a Filmfare nomination as Best Director. In 1996 he was the producer of PremGranth which was the directorial debut of his younger brother Rajiv and in 1999 he was the producer of Aa Ab Laut Chalen which was the directorial debut of Rishi.

In 1999 he returned to acting with the film Mother. After another break he appeared in the film Armaan (2003). Since then he has not acted in films.

On 13 May, 2007 he made an appearance on the television chat show Koffee with Karan where his brothers and sister Rima as well as his sister-in-law Neetu Singh appeared. On the show, it was mentioned how Randhir had been Neetu's first leading man in the film Rikshawala (1972), and they laughed about how the film hadn't done well.

Personal lifeRandhir and Babita were college sweethearts but their marriage was not a success. Babita was active in the movie industry until the time of her wedding. The Kapoor family tradition mandated her withdrawal from film upon marriage. After some time, they separated and Babita took their daughters with her. They did not get back together, and lived separately. But after 20 years of separation, Babita re-united with husband Randhir Kapoor in 2007 and moved in with him from her old household.

Despite the Kapoor family tradition, Babita encouraged her daughters to become film stars and to indulge in controversial western costumes (which were thought to be scandalous in prior years).